KQUEUE(2) BSD System Calls Manual KQUEUE(2)
NAMEkqueue, kevent, and kevent64 -- kernel event notification mechanism
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS#include<sys/types.h>#include<sys/event.h>#include<sys/time.h>intkqueue(void);
intkevent(intkq, conststructkevent*changelist, intnchanges, structkevent*eventlist, intnevents,
conststructtimespec*timeout);
intkevent64(intkq, conststructkevent64_s*changelist, intnchanges, structkevent64_s*eventlist,
intnevents, unsignedintflags, conststructtimespec*timeout);
EV_SET(&kev, ident, filter, flags, fflags, data, udata);
EV_SET64(&kev, ident, filter, flags, fflags, data, udata, ext[_], ext[1]);
DESCRIPTION
The kqueue() system call provides a generic method of notifying the user when a kernel event (kevent)
happens or a condition holds, based on the results of small pieces of kernel code termed filters. A
kevent is identified by an (ident, filter) pair and specifies the interesting conditions to be notified
about for that pair. An (ident, filter) pair can only appear once in a given kqueue. Subsequent
attempts to register the same pair for a given kqueue will result in the replacement of the conditions
being watched, not an addition.
The filter identified in a kevent is executed upon the initial registration of that event in order to
detect whether a preexisting condition is present, and is also executed whenever an event is passed to
the filter for evaluation. If the filter determines that the condition should be reported, then the
kevent is placed on the kqueue for the user to retrieve.
The filter is also run when the user attempts to retrieve the kevent from the kqueue. If the filter
indicates that the condition that triggered the event no longer holds, the kevent is removed from the
kqueue and is not returned.
Multiple events which trigger the filter do not result in multiple kevents being placed on the kqueue;
instead, the filter will aggregate the events into a single struct kevent. Calling close() on a file
descriptor will remove any kevents that reference the descriptor.
The kqueue() system call creates a new kernel event queue and returns a descriptor. The queue is not
inherited by a child created with fork(2).
The kevent() and kevent64() system calls are used to register events with the queue, and return any
pending events to the user. The changelist argument is a pointer to an array of kevent or kevent64_s
structures, as defined in <sys/event.h>. All changes contained in the changelist are applied before
any pending events are read from the queue. The nchanges argument gives the size of changelist. The
eventlist argument is a pointer to an array of kevent or kevent64_s structures. The nevents argument
determines the size of eventlist. If timeout is a non-NULL pointer, it specifies a maximum interval to
wait for an event, which will be interpreted as a struct timespec. If timeout is a NULL pointer, both
kevent() and kevent64() wait indefinitely. To effect a poll, the timeout argument should be non-NULL,
pointing to a zero-valued timespec structure. The same array may be used for the changelist and
eventlist.
The EV_SET() macro is provided for ease of initializing a kevent structure. Similarly, EV_SET64() ini-tializes initializes
tializes a kevent64_s structure.
The kevent and kevent64_s structures are defined as:
struct kevent {
uintptr_t ident; /* identifier for this event */
int16_t filter; /* filter for event */
uint16_t flags; /* general flags */
uint32_t fflags; /* filter-specific flags */
intptr_t data; /* filter-specific data */
void *udata; /* opaque user data identifier */
};
struct kevent64_s {
uint64_t ident; /* identifier for this event */
int16_t filter; /* filter for event */
uint16_t flags; /* general flags */
uint32_t fflags; /* filter-specific flags */
int64_t data; /* filter-specific data */
uint64_t udata; /* opaque user data identifier */
uint64_t ext[2]; /* filter-specific extensions */
};
----The ---The
The fields of structkevent and structkevent64_s are:
ident Value used to identify this event. The exact interpretation is determined by the attached
filter, but often is a file descriptor.
filter Identifies the kernel filter used to process this event. The pre-defined system filters are
described below.
flags Actions to perform on the event.
fflags Filter-specific flags.
data Filter-specific data value.
udata Opaque user-defined value passed through the kernel unchanged.
In addition, structkevent64_s contains:
ext[2] This field stores extensions for the event's filter. What type of extension depends on what
type of filter is being used.
----The ---The
The flags field can contain the following values:
EV_ADD Adds the event to the kqueue. Re-adding an existing event will modify the parameters of
the original event, and not result in a duplicate entry. Adding an event automatically
enables it, unless overridden by the EV_DISABLE flag.
EV_ENABLE Permit kevent() and kevent64() to return the event if it is triggered.
EV_DISABLE Disable the event so kevent() and kevent64() will not return it. The filter itself is
not disabled.
EV_DELETE Removes the event from the kqueue. Events which are attached to file descriptors are
automatically deleted on the last close of the descriptor.
EV_RECEIPT This flag is useful for making bulk changes to a kqueue without draining any pending
events. When passed as input, it forces EV_ERROR to always be returned. When a filter
is successfully added, the data field will be zero.
EV_ONESHOT Causes the event to return only the first occurrence of the filter being triggered.
After the user retrieves the event from the kqueue, it is deleted.
EV_CLEAR After the event is retrieved by the user, its state is reset. This is useful for fil-ters filters
ters which report state transitions instead of the current state. Note that some fil-ters filters
ters may automatically set this flag internally.
EV_EOF Filters may set this flag to indicate filter-specific EOF condition.
EV_ERROR See RETURNVALUES below.
----The ---The
The predefined system filters are listed below. Arguments may be passed to and from the filter via the
fflags and data fields in the kevent or kevent64_s structure.
EVFILT_READ Takes a file descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever there is data avail-able available
able to read. The behavior of the filter is slightly different depending on the
descriptor type.
Sockets
Sockets which have previously been passed to listen() return when there is an
incoming connection pending. data contains the size of the listen backlog.
Other socket descriptors return when there is data to be read, subject to the
SO_RCVLOWAT value of the socket buffer. This may be overridden with a per-filter
low water mark at the time the filter is added by setting the NOTE_LOWAT flag in
fflags, and specifying the new low water mark in data. On return, data contains
the number of bytes of protocol data available to read.
If the read direction of the socket has shutdown, then the filter also sets EV_EOF
in flags, and returns the socket error (if any) in fflags. It is possible for EOF
to be returned (indicating the connection is gone) while there is still data pend-ing pending
ing in the socket buffer.
Vnodes
Returns when the file pointer is not at the end of file. data contains the offset
from current position to end of file, and may be negative.
Fifos, Pipes
Returns when the there is data to read; data contains the number of bytes avail-able. available.
able.
When the last writer disconnects, the filter will set EV_EOF in flags. This may
be cleared by passing in EV_CLEAR, at which point the filter will resume waiting
for data to become available before returning.
EVFILT_WRITE Takes a file descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever it is possible to
write to the descriptor. For sockets, pipes and fifos, data will contain the amount
of space remaining in the write buffer. The filter will set EV_EOF when the reader
disconnects, and for the fifo case, this may be cleared by use of EV_CLEAR. Note that
this filter is not supported for vnodes.
For sockets, the low water mark and socket error handling is identical to the
EVFILT_READ case.
EVFILT_AIO This filter is currently unsupported.
EVFILT_VNODE Takes a file descriptor as the identifier and the events to watch for in fflags, and
returns when one or more of the requested events occurs on the descriptor. The events
to monitor are:
NOTE_DELETE The unlink() system call was called on the file referenced by the
descriptor.
NOTE_WRITE A write occurred on the file referenced by the descriptor.
NOTE_EXTEND The file referenced by the descriptor was extended.
NOTE_ATTRIB The file referenced by the descriptor had its attributes changed.
NOTE_LINK The link count on the file changed.
NOTE_RENAME The file referenced by the descriptor was renamed.
NOTE_REVOKE Access to the file was revoked via revoke(2) or the underlying
fileystem was unmounted.
On return, fflags contains the events which triggered the filter.
EVFILT_PROC Takes the process ID to monitor as the identifier and the events to watch for in
fflags, and returns when the process performs one or more of the requested events. If
a process can normally see another process, it can attach an event to it. The events
to monitor are:
NOTE_EXIT The process has exited.
NOTE_EXITSTATUS
The process has exited and its exit status is in filter specific data.
Valid only on child processes and to be used along with NOTE_EXIT.
NOTE_FORK The process created a child process via fork(2) or similar call.
NOTE_EXEC The process executed a new process via execve(2) or similar call.
NOTE_SIGNAL The process was sent a signal. Status can be checked via waitpid(2) or
similar call.
NOTE_REAP The process was reaped by the parent via wait(2) or similar call. Depre-cated, Deprecated,
cated, use NOTE_EXIT.
On return, fflags contains the events which triggered the filter.
EVFILT_SIGNAL Takes the signal number to monitor as the identifier and returns when the given signal
is generated for the process. This coexists with the signal() and sigaction() facili-ties, facilities,
ties, and has a lower precedence. Only signals sent to the process, not to a particu-lar particular
lar thread, will trigger the filter. The filter will record all attempts to deliver a
signal to a process, even if the signal has been marked as SIG_IGN. Event notifica-tion notification
tion happens before normal signal delivery processing. data returns the number of
times the signal has been generated since the last call to kevent(). This filter
automatically sets the EV_CLEAR flag internally.
EVFILT_MACHPORT Takes the name of a mach port, or port set, in ident and waits until a message is
received on the port or port set. When a message is recieved, the size of the message
is returned in data and if fflags is set to MACH_RCV_MSG, a pointer to the message is
returned in ext[0].
EVFILT_TIMER Establishes an interval timer with the data timer identified by ident. When adding a
timer, data specifies the timeout period and fflags can be set to one of the follow-ing: following:
ing:
NOTE_SECONDS data is in seconds
NOTE_USECONDS data is in microseconds
NOTE_NSECONDS data is in nanoseconds
NOTE_ABSOLUTE data is an absolute timeout
NOTE_CRITICAL system makes a best effort to fire this timer as scheduled.
NOTE_BACKGROUND
system has extra leeway to coalesce this timer.
NOTE_LEEWAY ext[1] holds user-supplied slop in deadline for timer coalescing.
If fflags is not set, the default is milliseconds. The timer will be periodic unless
EV_ONESHOT is specified. On return, data contains the number of times the timeout has
expired since the last call to kevent() or kevent64(). This filter automatically sets
the EV_CLEAR flag internally.
----In ---In
In the ext[2] field of the kevent64_s struture, ext[_] is only used with the EVFILT_MACHPORT filter.
With other filters, ext[_] is passed through kevent64() much like udata. ext[1] can always be used
like udata. For the use of ext[0], see the EVFILT_MACHPORT filter above.
RETURNVALUES
The kqueue() system call creates a new kernel event queue and returns a file descriptor. If there was
an error creating the kernel event queue, a value of -1 is returned and errno set.
The kevent() and kevent64() system calls return the number of events placed in the eventlist, up to the
value given by nevents. If an error occurs while processing an element of the changelist and there is
enough room in the eventlist, then the event will be placed in the eventlist with EV_ERROR set in flags
and the system error in data. Otherwise, -1 will be returned, and errno will be set to indicate the
error condition. If the time limit expires, then kevent() and kevent64() return 0.
ERRORS
The kqueue() system call fails if:
[ENOMEM] The kernel failed to allocate enough memory for the kernel queue.
[EMFILE] The per-process descriptor table is full.
[ENFILE] The system file table is full.
The kevent() and kevent64() system calls fail if:
[EACCES] The process does not have permission to register a filter.
[EFAULT] There was an error reading or writing the kevent or kevent64_s structure.
[EBADF] The specified descriptor is invalid.
[EINTR] A signal was delivered before the timeout expired and before any events were placed
on the kqueue for return.
[EINVAL] The specified time limit or filter is invalid.
[ENOENT] The event could not be found to be modified or deleted.
[ENOMEM] No memory was available to register the event.
[ESRCH] The specified process to attach to does not exist.
SEEALSOaio_error(2), aio_read(2), aio_return(2), read(2), select(2), sigaction(2), write(2), signal(3)HISTORY
The kqueue() and kevent() system calls first appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.
AUTHORS
The kqueue() system and this manual page were written by Jonathan Lemon <jlemon@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
Not all filesystem types support kqueue-style notifications. And even some that do, like some remote
filesystems, may only support a subset of the notification semantics described here.
BSD October 21, 2008 BSD

Reporting Problems

The way to report a problem with this manual page depends on the type of problem:

Content errors

Report errors in the content of this documentation with the feedback links below.

Bug reports

Report bugs in the functionality of the described tool or API through Bug Reporter.

Formatting problems

Report formatting mistakes in the online version of these pages with the feedback links below.